


What the World Could Be

by Aceofstars16



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-11 19:43:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13531224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aceofstars16/pseuds/Aceofstars16
Summary: Based on my headcanon that Will often wished for his family to be whole and happy (inspired by"A Million Dreams"from The Greatest Showman). In doing so, he draws a picture of their family if they were "perfect" but as the years go on, he realizes that maybe perfection isn't the most important thing.





	What the World Could Be

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr post](http://aceofstars16.tumblr.com/post/170333264243/what-the-world-could-be)

Yells echoed from the other room. Will couldn’t tell what they were saying, but yelling was never good. Even when his parents tried to keep their voices down, it could still be heard from every room in the house. Tears prickled at his eyes as he hugged his pillow. He hated when his parents fought. There had to have been a time when there hadn’t been any yelling, but he couldn’t remember it.

“I wish…” Will spoke quietly to himself, then sat up, his eyes drawn to his desk where his crayons were still sitting, scattered about from his last drawing. In the back of his mind an image started forming and he quickly got up and made his way over to his desk.

With yells still ringing in his ears, Will flicked on his desk light and grabbed a clean piece of paper. Stroke after stroke, his image came to life - even as tears fell onto the paper. A sniffle escaped his nose, but he quickly rubbed it with his hand and kept drawing. Time ticked onward, the yelling ceased, but he didn’t stop until the last line was drawn.

Leaning back, Will lifted up the paper, a small smile growing on his mouth. His mom, his dad, him and Jonathan, laughing, smiling. There was no yelling, no crying, just a happy family. Pressing the paper to his chest Will closed his eyes tight and whispered to himself once again. “I wish…”

* * *

 

The door slammed and Will cringed. Yelling had become normal but this was different. His mom hadn’t backed down and his dad wasn’t putting up with it. He had left before but something about this seemed different. Almost, final.

Running to his room, Will yanked open the drawer of his desk and pulled out a picture. The picture he drew a few years ago, the one he always pulled out when things went wrong. And like always, he pulled it to his chest, closed his eyes tight, felt the tears fall down his cheeks as he mumbled to himself. “I wish…”

* * *

 

It was dark. So dark. So cold. Everything was wrong. There was no sun, no warmth. When Will had first seen it all, he thought it was a dream. The monster he had seen couldn’t be real, this place couldn’t be real. But as the hours passed, reality settled in. This place was real, and he didn’t know how to get home.

Walking into what would’ve been his room, Will looked around. It was so stranger and yet so familiar. Some things were still there, though they looked different, but other things where missing. Glancing at his desk, a thought occurred to him and he made his way over to it and opened the drawer. And there it was. His picure. His eyes flickered to his dad, who hadn’t been present in his life for a while now, who probably wasn’t even aware of what was happening. Then he looked at his mom and Jonathan, the picture growing blurry as tears filled his eyes. His hands started shaking as a sob grew I his chest. Pulling the paper to his chest he spoke in a shaky voice. “I wish…I wish I was home…”

And then he was home. After being stuck in the hospital for a few days, he was home again. For once, his wish had come true. Looking at the picture in his hand, Will glanced at his dad, remembering Jonathan’s explanation of what had happened, of how Lonnie had reacted to everything. Gripping the paper carefully, he started tearing it, excluding his dad from the picture. For so many years Will had hoped things could be better, that his dad would actually care about him for who he was, not who he wanted him to be, but now he was just glad to have his mom and brother. And for him, that was enough.

* * *

 

“This one?”

Will looked up from the box he was packing, his eyes flicking to the torn drawing in El’s hand. It was old, one of the few older drawings he had kept. Even after he had torn his dad out, he hadn’t had the heart to get rid of it. The wish attached to it had got him through some hard times.

“That…” his voice trailed off as he realized that he wasn’t sure he wanted to part with it. But then an idea started forming in his head.

“I think it’s about time I redraw that one…”

It took a while - especially because Will let El help – but it was worth it as he held up the picture. Glancing at El, he smiled at her and saw her own smile matching his.

“Think we should surprise mom and dad with it?” Will asked. Calling Hopper his dad still seemed to odd to him but…he kind of liked it.

A grin broke out on her face as she nodded. “Yes!”

“Come on, let’s put it on the fridge, mom always put my art up there when I was little.” With a grin still on their faces, they raced to the kitchen and secured the drawing with a few magnets.

As Will looked at it, he couldn’t help but remember a time when he had wished his family was a perfect one, with a dad who cared and a mom who didn’t have to work all the time. In those days he had never imagined anyone else being added to the family. He always thought it could be perfect if just a few things changed. But now he knew better. Perfect families didn’t exist. His new family was far from it, but perfection didn’t matter anymore. Now Will knew what the most important thing about family was. It wasn’t always being happy, it wasn’t the absence of the bad. It was how his mom still let him come to him with nightmares, it was how El let him confide in her, how Jonathan made new mixtapes for him, how Hopper gripped his shoulders and told him it was going to be okay. A family was made up of people who loved you and were there for you no matter what. And that’s exactly the kind of family he had, and he wouldn’t trade them for the world.


End file.
